Project Area

The project area includes Bollinger, Butler, Carter, Crawford, Dent, Iron, Madison, Oregon, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Stoddard, Washington, and Wayne counties, including over 4.9 million acres of private and public lands comprising most of Missouri Feral Hog Elimination Partnership (MFHEP) Elimination Areas (EA) 4 & 6 (Figure 1). The project area will encompass the areas currently occupied by feral swine and the areas where ongoing monitoring will continue.

A portion of the proposed project area is immediately adjacent to Fulton County, Arkansas, a Tier 2 county associated with the Arkansas Ozark Feral Swine Control Pilot Project. Major stream watersheds associated with the project area include all or parts of the Big, Current, Meramec, Upper Black, Upper St. Francis, Lower St. Francis, Whitewater, Upper Mississippi-Cape Girardeau, and the Little River ditches situate within EA 4, while all or parts of the Spring, Eleven Point, Lower Black, and the Current watersheds comprise all or parts of the major stream watersheds that lay within EA 6. With the exception of the Big, Meramec, Upper Mississippi-Cape Girardeau, and the diverted Whitewater watersheds, all of the major stream watersheds associated with the project area flow southerly into either the White or St. Francis major watersheds in Arkansas. This includes watersheds that overlap the state border and comprise parts of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Arkansas Ozark Feral Swine Pilot Project.

The area is represented by over 1.3 million acres of public lands, including land associated with 4 Ranger Districts within the U.S. Forest Service Mark Twain National Forest (MTNF), the U.S. National Park Service’s Ozark National Scenic Riverways (ONSR), the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Clearwater and Wappapello lake projects, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) – Parks and the Missouri Department of Conservation – Conservation Areas (MDC CA). Private land within the proposed pilot project area comprises approximately 3.4 million acres, representing approximately 70 percent of the total area.

Map(s)

Anticipated Partner Activities

All partner activities will be guided by the goals/objectives/strategies of the “Statewide Strategic Plan for Feral Hog Elimination in Missouri” (updated June 2025) as adopted by the MFHEP. Activities would include, but aren’t limited to:

Purchase of equipment and supplies (e.g., traps, cellular trail cameras, cellular service, bait, etc.) to support the ongoing feral swine elimination program in the delineated project area. Equipment will remain property of the partner when the pilot project concludes.
Providing direct assistance to private landowners to protect their property from feral swine damage.
Use of existing partner staff to assist Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) with scouting private and adjacent public lands for feral swine.
Assisting in obtaining permission on private lands where feral swine elimination efforts can take place.
To the extent possible, using existing partner staff to trap and eliminate feral swine, further augmenting the elimination efforts currently underway.
Informing and assisting landowners with opportunities for restoration activities, such as Farm Bill funding, following successful elimination of feral swine from private properties.
Developing media such as articles, newsletters, and other educational materials.
Organizing landowner workshops and activities to facilitate transfer of information concerning feral swine elimination efforts in Missouri.
Maintaining and advertising availability of equipment (total of 7 pieces of equipment in EAs 1 and 2) that can be loaned to landowners for restoration activities following elimination of feral swine on their properties, further incentivizing landowners to cooperate with elimination efforts.
Working with adjoining states, particularly Arkansas and Oklahoma, using collaborative elimination efforts along the state borders when they do not have enough staff to address ongoing feral swine issues.

APHIS will be considered the subject matter experts for implementing feral swine removal and damage reduction activities. Partners will need to collaborate with APHIS personnel when removal activities are requested by participating landowners. All projects will be a collaborative and coordinated effort between the selected partner, NRCS, and APHIS. It is required that APHIS maintains operational control of feral swine management activities.

Monitoring/Evaluation Requirements of Partner

Spatial data for measuring and monitoring the pilot project effect on the feral swine distribution and occupancy of watersheds will be collected from public reports of feral swine activity and from each trapping/removal event location within the pilot project area. Evidence of project effects will be determined by analyzing differences in the total number of quartered watersheds (i.e., subwatersheds or HUC-12) occupied by feral swine after the initiation of direct control operations within the project area. Feral swine watershed occupancy will be monitored and evaluated every 6 months. New technologies and methodologies will be explored to measure success as they become available.

The purpose of the project is to use a strategic and systematic approach allowing the partners to survey for and eliminate any new feral hogs that show up in EA1, respond to any new reported locations of hogs outside the EAs, and focus efforts on eliminating the remaining hogs in EA2.

Partners are required to collect standardized information for trapping operations in accordance with APHIS procedures. Examples of data collected include trap location, number of pigs trapped, location of nearby resources, etc.

Training Expectations

Education will be essential aspects of the project to ensure landowners are educated on the need for removing feral swine, approved techniques, and methods for controlling feral swine populations. Partners are expected to assist with training and educational activities.

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